Love in The Process: Riley and Sean Kempton

When Riley and Sean Kempton first met, sparks were flying, but it would take more than a year for their relationship to catch fire.

Sean initially met his future wife when he was working in Southwest Florida on the first gubernatorial campaign of Gov. Ron DeSantis.  At the time, the “gorgeous” director of campaigns and digital media for TM Strategic Consulting “was on my radar,” he says. The good news was DeSantis won. The bad news was Sean would end up leaving the region to work for the Governor, bud nipping any romance for the next year.

Riley recalls feeling a little something at the beginning too. “I definitely thought he was attractive,” she says. One of her former classmates was his intern and she asked if Sean was single (he was). “And then he moved to Tallahassee, and I didn’t get to see him.”

Sean returned to his hometown, but Cupid’s arrows would have to remain in the quiver a little longer. Both were working on campaigns, including a congressional race, of candidates who were running against each other.

“I was interested in him, but we were running races against each other, so we kind of had to wait until the races were done and then we both kind of pursued each other,” Riley says. “The day after the election he asked me out.”

The couple made it Facebook official at the end of 2020, married soon after and had their daughter, Marina, two years ago. They live in Cape Coral.

Riley has been Government Relations Coordinator for the Lee County School District, under newly elected Superintendent Denise Carlin, lobbying in her first Session for public schools.

“We have a big list of priorities, but the biggest thing we’re focusing on this year is the safety of our students,” she says. “We have an appropriation request for $2.9 million for a couple of items that will help harden our schools.”

Sean decided to drop out of the campaign business to avoid any conflicts with his wife’s career and currently works for a local construction company.

Riley bought her husband a gas-fired pizza oven for Father’s Day last year, and their plans for Valentine’s Day include creating a from-scratch pizza to celebrate.

“He’s been really into growing his own tomatoes, so we’re going to probably make our pizza dough from scratch, our sauce from scratch, and make some pizzas at home, and then I think the next day we’re going to go on the boat,” she said, describing the itinerary.

With a top temperature of 1,200 degrees, creating the perfect pizza entailed some trial and error. Riley admits to burning “tons” of pizzas while learning. “It takes some getting used to. We’ve had the whole pizza catch on fire.”

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